There
is something about their After The Fox
that suggests a back-and-forth, one that exists almost as a kind of chase: “Dear
Nocturnal, / have you jumped into the edge of the Atlantic? / Have you /
forgotten me?” They compose their collaboration in five parts—an opening poem,
and four sections, the fourth of which acts more as a bookend, akin to the
first unpublished piece, than its own individual section—and the poems exist in
extended untitled stretches that each extend anywhere from a single page to a
couple of pages or more. They write of “Nocturnal,” and the fox, producing less
of a narrative than an abstract “tone” across a fairly large canvas; one that
holds together while opening further with each new poem, developing very much
into that ‘collaborative voice’ that is recognizable not as two voices but an
evolving single voice throughout. While the back-and-forthness of their
composition is intriguing, there are sections of the collection that could have
done with a bit more editing, allowing their meditative stretches to meander a
bit more than they should or could have. I am curious to wonder, also: is this
a one-off project between Cebula and Suzor, or might collaboration between the
two be something they return to, again, with subsequent projects?